Aphrodite: A Memoir of the Senses

Under the aegis of the Goddess of Love, Isabel Allende uses her storytelling skills brilliantly in Aphrodite to evoke the delights of food and sex. After considerable research and study, she has become an authority on aphrodisiacs, which include everything from food and drink to stories and, of course, love. Readers will find here recipes from Allende's mother, poems, stories from ancient and foreign literatures, paintings, personal anecdotes, fascinating tidbits on the sensual art of foodand its effects on amorous performance, tips on how to attract your mate and revive flagging virility, passages on the effect of smell on libido, a history of alcoholic beverages, and much more.

An ode to sensuality that is an irresistible blend of memory, imagination and the senses, Aphrodite is familiar territory for readers who know her fiction.

Under the aegis of the Goddess of Love, Isabel Allende uses her storytelling skills brilliantly in Aphrodite to evoke the delights of food and sex. After considerable research and study, she has become an authority on aphrodisiacs, which include everything from food and drink to stories and, of course, love. Readers will find here recipes from Allende's mother, poems, stories from ancient and foreign literatures, paintings, personal anecdotes, fascinating tidbits on the sensual art of foodand its effects on amorous performance, tips on how to attract your mate and revive flagging virility, passages on the effect of smell on libido, a history of alcoholic beverages, and much more.

An ode to sensuality that is an irresistible blend of memory, imagination and the senses, Aphrodite is familiar territory for readers who know her fiction.

"Aphrodisiacs of every eyebrow-raising stripe are the spicy matter of Aphrodite, a thoroughly charming non-fiction narrative by acclaimed San Rafael novelist Isabel Allende. . . . Engaging, deliciously detailed and something of an aphrodisiac itself, Allende's wide-ranging meditation on the methodology of seduction is sure to excite as many literary appetites as libidinous ones." - San Francisco Chronicle

"Like a slow, seductive lover, Allende teases, tempts and titillates with mesmerizing stories and legends about gluttony--sexual and otherwise." - Washington Post